Brandon Ortiz

95 Added | 6 Magazines | 315 Likes | 2 Followers | @bilbo_swaggins | Keep up with Brandon Ortiz on Flipboard, a place to see the stories, photos, and updates that matter to you. Flipboard creates a personalized magazine full of everything, from world news to life’s great moments. Download Flipboard for free and search for “Brandon Ortiz”

Scientists have found large natural stores of the toxin in the Arctic. It's not clear how much will get into food webs as the planet warms.<p>Scientists have uncovered another hidden threat buried in the icy frozen north—massive natural reserves of mercury, a toxic heavy metal that in some forms can …

From the way you move and sleep, to how you interact with people around you, depression changes just about everything. It is even noticeable in the way you speak and express yourself in writing. Sometimes this "language of depression" can have a powerful effect on others. Just consider the impact …

Private landowners present a rising threat to the millions of acres set aside for public use by blocking access to public lands<p>The Diamond Bar X is a postcard-perfect slice of Montana solitude. A former cattle ranch that’s been parceled up into sprawling home sites, it sits not far outside Augusta, …

The United States comprises several different regions, each with its own rich history and cultural identity.<p>Exactly where those regions start and end has been a long-running debate, but according to author Colin Woodard, the United States can be divided into 11 distinct sub-nations.<p>Woodard mapped …

This new generation is motivated: it combines the cultural values of the traditional Asian family with the life goals of the American teenager<p>An illuminating and sometimes alarming book, Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing the World, is published this month. About 600 million people, more than …

On a Friday night last month, I moderated a debate in Manhattan about whether we should scrap capitalism. It was organized by the socialist magazine Jacobin; defending capitalism were editors from the libertarian publication Reason. Tickets for all available 450 seats sold out in a day. So Jacobin …

Houston, Texas<p>From the top of the Sam Houston Ship Channel Bridge, more than 50 meters (160 ft) above Buffalo Bayou, in every direction you look, you can see huge oil tankers, massive piles of coal, and uncountable smokestacks. This small corner of Houston is home to some of the world’s most …

This unhealthy and expensive habit is ruining Millennials' chances of ever getting wealthy.<p>After graduating from Babson College's top-ranked entrepreneurship program, Dandan Zhu joined a headhunting company. Rising quickly through the ranks to become one of its rainmakers, she set up its executive …

In a country with a unique culture like Japan, visitors can feel daunted by the rules and social norms that regulate public life and interpersonal relations. Foreigners visiting Japan are not expected to be familiar with Japanese etiquette, but knowing a few basics will go a long way in helping you …

When to eat, drink, sleep, and think deep thoughts.<p>You might think you’re in control of your schedule, but your body evolved to follow a natural rhythm. Sticking closer to that routine can help keep you in tiptop shape.<p>Drink coffee<p>Sipping caffeine is best done early in the day. Imbibed later, it …

The cars’ exterior would collapse in order to reduce harm in the event of a crash<p>If self-driving cars really do take over our roads then things are going to be a lot safer — at least for people inside them. Vehicles will be able to constantly communicate with one another to prevent crashes, but …

Written by Dalya Alberge, CNN<p>In Sanne De Wilde's photographs of Pingelap, a tiny coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean, nothing is quite as it seems. Her images depict a tropical paradise where the jungle vegetation is pale pink, the sea is gray and local inhabitants are seen in black and white.<p>But the …

Their income began to rise significantly about five years ago. One of the first things they did with all of this extra money was to spend it on a very expensive, million-dollar home in an upscale neighborhood.<p>But that wasn't all. They proceeded to spend approximately $150,000 refurbishing their …

Sean saves 65% of his take-home pay — he earns $80,000 a year as a financial analyst — and still manages to travel frequently.<p>"Probably what's most driving me [to retire early] — I just want freedom," he told Business Insider. "So many people get caught up in the race of materialism, thinking that …

In the chaos of selecting the perfect wedding invitations and planning your dream honeymoon, it's easy to forget that there's a whole <i>life</i> set to happen after the ceremony's behind you.<p>While we have faith that your relationship is destined for many, many years of bliss, we also know that it's …

A man sobbed in a New York emergency room. His elderly wife, who suffered from advanced dementia, had just had a breathing tube stuck down her throat. He knew she never would have wanted that. Now he had to decide whether to reverse the life-sustaining treatment that medics had begun.<p>When Dr. Kei …

“I’ve seen people pass out, hit the floor like a pancake, and smash their face open,” a worker at Tesla’s “factory of the future” told the Guardian in a report published this week. “They just send us to work around him while he’s still lying on the floor.”<p>The Guardian report described long hours …

The fall of Juicero isn’t just entertaining tech industry stupidity – it’s the sign of a country refusing to break new ground<p>If you’ve used the internet at any point in the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard of Juicero. Juicero is a San Francisco-based company that sells a $400 juicer. Here’s …

The tech industry has a problem with “bro culture.” People have been complaining about it for years. Yet nobody has done much to fix it.<p>That may finally change, if the people in charge of Silicon Valley — venture capitalists, who control the money — start to realize that the real problem with tech …

A probe the size of a basketball court has taken unprecedented new images of Jupiter.<p>NASA's $1 billion Juno spacecraft, launched in August 2011, took five years to reach and settle into orbit around the gas giant, which is more than 415 million miles from Earth.<p>The probe has so far photographed …

Chemists hate being beaten by physicists at their own game. At IBM Research, physicist Leo Gross and his team have done just that.<p>Gross’s team made a triangular molecule that chemists have found impossible to produce by conventional chemistry. To rub it in even more, Gross and his colleagues may go …

The byproducts of life are sprinkling onto lunar soil<p>Despite orbiting nearly 240,000 miles from Earth, our Moon may be periodically mingling with our planet’s atmosphere. New research shows that oxygen from Earth could be journeying all the way out to the Moon, where it then gets lodged inside the …

Surprise and a desire for retaliation are some of the reactions to President Trump's temporary ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries.<p>The ban, abruptly imposed Friday, led the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-nation body that's based in Saudi Arabia, to call on the U.S. to …

The immigration order creates an international mess—and a political embarrassment.<p>“It’s working out very nicely,” President Donald Trump said on Saturday afternoon as he signed his latest batch of executive actions. “You see it in the airports.”<p>It was the usual confident swagger from a man …

Although the report's publication comes shortly after the election of President Donald Trump, the EIU analysts write that the US was not downgraded because of him. Rather, they argue, his surprise election was an <i>effect</i> of the underlying causes that led the EIU to downgrade the US.<p>According to the …